Oxytocin receptor genotype and low economic privilege reverses ventral striatum-social anxiety association

ABSTRACT

Oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms, lower ventral striatum (VS) response to social stimuli, and lower economic privilege have been independently associated with depression and anxiety. However, the interactions between these risk factors are unknown. One hundred and fifty-seven healthy adult participants genotyped for OXTR rs237915 completed a common emotion-matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Past economic privilege and depression and anxiety symptoms were concurrently assessed through validated self-report measures. The data revealed an interaction between rs237915 genotype and economic privilege on the neural response to negative faces. C-carriers showed decreased VS activation and increased connectivity between the VS and ventromedial prefrontal cortex with increased economic privilege. TT homozygotes showed the reverse pattern. Low VS response to negative faces predicted increased social anxiety, but only for those with either lower economic privilege or the C allele. For those with both, low VS response was associated with paradoxically lower social anxiety. Findings suggest that economic privilege and OXTR rs237915 genotype may calibrate social motivational neural systems for better or worse. While lower VS response to negative faces may generally constitute a risk factor for social anxiety, lower response to social cues may be a benefit for those with dual risk.

KEYWORDS:

• OXTR
• rs237915
• life history
• economic privilege
• ventral striatum
• social salience
• social anxiety

Acknowledgements

We thank Katie Lancaster and Tyler Santander for their assistance collecting data for this project and Travis Lillard for his lab support and training. This research was supported by funds provided to JJC and JPM from the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant 1228522).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [1228522];